Restraint

Following on from my entry yesterday AND my crop last night, I’ve noticed I do have a lot of restraint when it comes to shopping – in general, but of course stash shopping in specific.

I loooove shopping and have so many clothes that they nearly don’t fit in my wardrobe. Notice I say nearly – in order to try and limit myself, I have always had this unwritten rule with myself that ALL my clothes must fit in the available space. If a new item doesn’t, then an old one must go. I have a limited number of hangers, hardly ever get new ones (and that is to replace busted ones, mainly) so my clothes must fit my hangers. I also have limited space in my drawers, etc so my stuff must fit in.

I’ve always been like this, but I must admit it was hard when I moved from my spacious walk-in closet back home to my teensy-weensy little house in the UK – I couldn’t fit anything! A big help was that almost none of my clothes were suitable for the UK climate so I did have to replace a lot of stuff and as long as it fit into my available space, I was happy. We’ve also always changed our clothes around depending on season, which means my winter clothes are happily sitting in the loft now, clearing space for my blouses and skirts.

We treat our fridge in the same way – if it doesn’t fit we don’t buy it. We probably could do now with a larger fridge, to be honest, but the rule seems to work okay most of the time (except when we have 20+ people round for a BBQ!). My little boy’s closet is the same – if it doesn’t fit it doesn’t get bought. We did get lots and lots and LOTS of gifts when he was born and luckily we could store some of the items he was too little for, to use later, but the rule applied all the time, and still does!

So it’s no surprise that I am the same way about my little scrap cupboard – if it doesn’t fit I don’t buy it. I tend to stick to this even more strictly than I do other areas of life, don’t know why. I guess that with scrapping I realize that in the main, it’s a hobby and not a contest to see who has the most stuff. I of course love looking through all the lovely things but also am able quite easily to say, “I don’t need it” or “it just doesn’t fit”.

Last time I was in the States I went into Michaels and spent a happy hour there, looking through all their lovely things and being amazed at the low prices when compared to the UK. I saw gorgeous things that I hadn’t seen before and really had a good old browse. What did I buy? I bought about 5 sheets of vellum stickers, some letter stickers and that was it! I spent under $10 but I loved the time I spent there. If I wasn’t so practical I would have spent a lot, lot more... but for all the lovely things I saw I would think that I didn’t need it, it wouldn’t fit in my cupboard or I just wouldn’t use it. I’m practical and I don’t regret it!

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